European Parliament finds member states complicit in CIA renditions

[JURIST] The European Parliament adopted an interim report [press release] Thursday that agrees with earlier findings by the Council of Europe (COE) that European states were complicit in alleged incidents of CIA extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive]. The report [EP materials] criticizes European nations for failing to act or complying with CIA efforts to illegally seize terror suspects on European territory, as well as the alleged rendition of European nationals. The European Parliament report also accuses the CIA of being directly responsible for the "illegal seizure, removal, abduction and detention of terrorist suspects on the territory of Member States, accession and candidate countries," violating fundamental rights protected by international law.

In June, the COE formally endorsed [JURIST report] the report of Swiss prosecutor Dick Marty concluding that 14 European countries collaborated with the CIA [JURIST report; PDF text report] by taking an active or passive role in a network of prisons and rendition flights. Both the COE and the European Parliament reports endorse the drafting of new laws governing how European nations should monitor airspace and flights for possible rendition activity. Reuters has more.

About Paper Chase

Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible format.